Had to venture onto Facebook today, and apparently I’d posted this cartoon from the New Yorker five years ago today:
Five years ahead of its time, if you ask me.
Like many of you, I am pretty floored by the speed and severity of this week’s events, and by how relatively muted the reaction outside of a few online communities seems to be. I’ve started writing a handful of posts and abandoned them all – a roundup of coverage of the fifth anniversary of Official Brexit Day, which was Friday, seemed less important than letting people talk about Elon Musk gaining control of many of the US’s IT systems or about what to do to soften the blow of the tariffs that are about to impact everyone’s daily lives.
(I also spent quite a lot of time applying for UK-based roles this weekend just to see if I can get more GBP-based income sooner rather than later, and caught up on season two of Severance.)
I will say this, however: Brexit has been a disaster. It’s made Britain poorer and weaker. The original referendum vote was 52%-48%, but today, 55% of Britons now believe Brexit was the wrong choice, and that it has had a major negative impact on many aspects of UK life:
The result of the non-binding Brexit referendum, and the very binding decision to go ahead with it, dictate everything that’s happening in UK politics. It is always Brexit Day over here, and will be until some government comes along that has the courage to truly re-set the terms of our relationship with the EU. It does not look like the current government has that courage. They are picking loose threads here and there, doing little bits of realignment, but rejoining is a non-starter. Honestly, it probably would be for the EU, too – why trust a Labour government’s promises today when a Reform one might sweep in sometime in 2029?
So for now, the country is going to be trapped in this vicious cycle it chose for itself, endlessly bumping up against the same Brexit issues and having the same Brexit arguments. It is quite possibly the most damaging decision a democratic society has made for itself in the post-war period.
Or at least, it was until this past November.
Five years from now, the US is likely to find itself trapped in a similar version of Groundhog Day – dealing with the isolationism, social unrest, and throttled prosperity that a plurality of citizens once endorsed.
Anyway, ready or not, here comes another working week. Keep your loved ones safe and your congressional reps on speed dial.
Baud
We’re doing our best to chase UK back into Europe’s arms.
Melancholy Jaques
I have wondered about this for some time. Thanks for putting this up, it’s the first poll like this that I have seen.
If 55% think it was a bad idea, that doesn’t seem like a consensus. Have to admit that I don’t know enough about UK to know whether 55% is as high as anything gets. In the States, that would be a landslide presidential election.
Rose Judson
@Baud: We’ll see! Starmer is meeting EU officials on security issues this weekend.
Betty Cracker
The Brexit comparison is apt. Dealing with self-inflicted gunshot wounds to the feet is never pleasant.
PS: We enjoyed the latest BoAT episode! An oasis of sanity-ish in a desert of despair. Thank you!
gene108
Too many conservatives in this country care more about social dominance than actually making things generally better. They’d be happy with a poorer country, as long as they are in charge.
sentient ai from the future
Trudeau has a direct message for USians in his address. shit’s getting real. i expect the markets to take a shit tomorrow and the orange shitbird may very well cave and declare victory as he did with colombia if theres enough outrage on fox or oann to penetrate his bubble.
https://youtu.be/nLB46AR_O94?t=33
Betty
The sad thing about Brexit is that all the negative outcomes were predictable, but the propaganda by one side and failure of Labour’s leadership to strongly come out against it made it possible. Sorry that the country is stuck for now.
RaflW
After Brexit, could there be Canentry?
With its U.S. alliance under pressure, could Canada join the EU?
CBC Feb. 2, 2025
Relations between Canada and the U.S. are coming under serious pressure — and that has some commentators offering an unlikely — though not impossible — solution.
What if Canada joined the European Union?
Even before U.S. President Donald Trump threatened Canadians with “economic force” if they did not want to become a “51st state,” Stanley Pignal, a columnist with The Economist, floated the idea of the country switching teams.
More here: https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/canada-european-union-1.7446400
lowtechcyclist
Josh Marshall had this to say today about the “shock and awe” Musk/Trump assault on our government:
RaflW
@Betty Cracker: Ours is to the groin, though.
RaflW
@sentient ai from the future: If Trump finds a way to ‘save face’ and back down, I still want Canadian provinces to refuse to re-stock Kentucky bourbon or anything brewed or distilled in Texas.
lowtechcyclist
@RaflW:
Who could blame them if they did? If I were Canadian, I’d want my government to be looking into ways to minimize our exposure to any harm the Trump Administration could throw at us. If joining the EU makes economic sense, they should go for it.
MazeDancer
Joined Costco today. And got an instant credit card for the 2% back. Can’t get the cheap gas and 5% back on it because the nearest store is 37 miles away.
But DEI matters.
Had been ordering their Organic Olive Oil and paying the 5% non-member surtax. Because still the cheapest, best option. Highly rec.
Threw in some cheap Canadian Maple Syrup to my order for solidarity.
sentient ai from the future
@lowtechcyclist:
“shock and awe” can also be described as “smoke and mirrors”
zhena gogolia
@lowtechcyclist: I think that’s a good point.
sentient ai from the future
@RaflW: i think “cave and declare victory” is different from “save face” but thats a nitpick.
poor Tito’s Handmade. can’t be helped, i guess.
Hoodie
@RaflW: Makes more sense than being the 51st state. Irony would be Canada joining the EU with favored status (eg, maintaining its own currency) like UK had.
Jeffro
@RaflW:
@lowtechcyclist:
@Hoodie:
what if the blue states say “eff this” and join Canada as its 11th-28th provinces?
what if NATO kicks the U.S. out?
what if Musk decides to quit sending payments to Democrats, or single women, or NGOs based in blue states?
what if trump and Musk skim $1T each, per year, out of the Treasury?
such an exciting world! Has anyone asked our very serious news organizations how they feel about being kicked out of the Pentagon in favor of Breitbart, OANN, and HuffPo?
mark
Canada should cut off natural gas to the U.S.
The Audacity of Krope
Won’t help. Our President is an inexhaustible source.
RaflW
@lowtechcyclist: Ezra Klein had a good piece up today along those lines. He too is saying Trump is weak, and we have the power to show him up.
I think that’s a lot of what the sturm und drang pointed at Democrats is about. We can see that mad king Donald is a collosal fuckup. We want Dem leaders to point in both horror and derision and say “This is all bullshit. It’s all premised on total flimflam and we and the American people will not tolerate it.”
lowtechcyclist
@RaflW:
Derision is always good.
I may have some stickers with Trump’s face and the word ‘FIGUREHEAD’ printed on them. And stick ’em everywhere.
mark
test not working
mark
watching ground hog day right now
Baud
@mark:
I got you, babe.
different-church-lady
@lowtechcyclist: I’m starting to feel like Josh Marshall is the only one around who’s really grasping what’s going on from the human psychology standpoint. Like, he gets what Trump is trying to do to us on a conscious level while everyone else is just confused.
mark
@Betty: You know overall you are right. There will be winners though. During the last administration Trump tried to kill the petroleum industry. He bankrupted a lot of companies. I bottom fished BP and doubled my 100k investment. Cashed out for 200K.
Starfish (she/her)
@mark: Canada is ready! This Instagram video from Canada Updates is hilarious
MagdaInBlack
@Jeffro: What if he holds the Treasury Dept payments hostage til he gets whatever it is he and the tech-oligarchs want
Yeah, that’s where my head has gone.
mark
@Starfish (she/her): Our Cannuck neighbors are bad ass. I live only about 45 minutes south of Canada. I trust their judgement.
PsiFighter37
I don’t think the stock market is going to tank tomorrow. Could it be down 2-3% possibly? Absolutely. However, there is also the chance that the damage is more localized/sectoralized (e.g. GM and Ford take a complete dump), at least initially.
Going down something on the magnitude of 5%, though, is out of the question. The market is going to continue to give the felon the benefit of the doubt until the economic data (assuming that Project 2025 doesn’t simply start making up numbers and messing with the data) turns.
Starfish (she/her)
@MagdaInBlack: What if Congress actually did its job? What if Monday morning, while the stock market is taking a nose dive, they halted all approval of all cabinet members, called Elon before every relevant committee and said that he does not have a line item veto on government, and every one of his henchmen need to GTFO or be arrested? We can’t rely on Republicans or Democrats to recognize that they are a part of the government and should do some jobs.
I mean, this requires at least one Benghazi’s worth of hearings to sort out.
Sister Golden Bear
Six men between 19-24 are running Musk’s takeover of the government’s payment system. Josh Marshall has a good summary from a non-paywalled article at Talking Points Memo. Reportedly the Elon Youth(tm) have root-level access to systems at both Treasury and HHS — which is an INCREDIBILITY BAD THING. It gives the user complete control over the system, including the ability to make changes to files, programs, and security settings. In theory, they could delete the entire system, or potentially severely damage it, if for no other reason that they don’t know what they’re doing.
From a paywalled article at Wired.
mark
@PsiFighter37: I have a limit order in for ford at $9.50. Not much for 1000 shares.
trollhattan
Canada’s list is as vast as the Great White North.
https://www.canada.ca/en/department-finance/news/2025/02/list-of-products-from-the-united-states-subject-to-25-per-cent-tariffs-effective-february-4-2025.html
Clearly a work sitting on an Ottawa shelf ready to go, for a good while.
trollhattan
@Sister Golden Bear:
Engineers don’t “do” government. Yay, us. (Musk not being an engineering is not reassuring in the slightest.)
MagdaInBlack
@Sister Golden Bear: This is why my hair is smoldering today. Not on fire quite yet.
trollhattan
A reminder for the hive mind.
just think, covid was still two years off.
Baud
Crockett, via Reddit
Starfish (she/her)
@Sister Golden Bear: I don’t have a subscription to Wired, but Wired is talking about these kids, who need to get off my lawn, also.
Old Dan and Little Ann
In 1997, my roommates and I did a dumb college thing and drove to Punxsutawney from Pittsburgh to see Phil. We arrived @ 4 a.m. and I was shocked at how many people were standing around in the cold, pitch dark. Dawn eventually arrived and whatever happened next we didn’t see much because we were so far back. Then it was over. I vividly remember being super excited to crawl into my bed around 9 a.m. and sleep the Sunday away.
Baud
Blue Jays games too.
We also got the Olympics and World Cup under Trump.
Happy happy joy joy.
Miki
@gene108: That’s the most hideous part of MAGAts for me.
Anyone who gets off on dominance is, by definition, evil. It’s a line I cannot cross.
The Audacity of Krope
Well, consent and the scope of the dominance matter.
trollhattan
@Baud: Has Trump declared soccer “woke and gay” yet?
Steve LaBonne
@different-church-lady: I would be hard-pressed to name a better political analyst right now than Marshall. I think his training as a historian is a big part of that, which is also what makes Heather Cox Richardson’s posts so valuable. Perspective is precious and hard to come by in this maelstrom.
Lobo
@Sister Golden Bear: They remind me of the young associates the consultants always sent to any of the companies I worked at. They always thought they knew more and were quite smug and condescending in their approach. But when you dug deep into their knowledge they knew nothing but the broad consultant framework approach they used for everything. It was a matter to guide them to rubber stamp what everyone was saying anyway. It was dangerous if you let them do more.
Or they recommended firing everyone.
hells littlest angel
Now the UK can take pride in being only the second stupidest country on the face of the earth.
Miki
@The Audacity of Krope: Dominance that’s scripted play is fine.
That’s not what I’m talking about.
Shalimar
@Sister Golden Bear: Children of wealth who don’t have to worry about making any income to pay bills for the next 18 months. Can we put their daddies in prison too if/when their revolution is defeated?
Baud
Via Reddit, Goliath.
Baud
The right wing media are all over this story.
Baud
Malcolm Kenyatta? Isn’t that the young guy from PA?
daddio7
Well sure, self deteminarion is not worth it if the other side offers cold hard cash for your submission.
Steve LaBonne
As they are attacked and threatened by Shitler, all honor to and solidarity with the country of some of my ancestors (hence my surname).
Chacal Charles Calthrop
@Lobo: yeah, which was why when there was a corporate struggle, and the winner needed to fire all the hirelings loyal to the loser, he’d bring in an expensive consulting company to recommend them all getting fired. They could be so counted on making that recommendation that no one needed to direct them to say it.
Steve LaBonne
@Baud: Who in a better universe is Senator instead of Fetterman.
TBone
We can do some of the things Bill Murray did in the Groundhog Day movie to get himself out of that PA purgatory (not the repeat suicide attempts or the kidnapping of the groundhog) – taking care to get to know or at least be kind to the people in our communities, especially those who are vulnerable, lonely, and/or needy, taking joy in learning to do new things and doing them well, and falling in love with life in spite everything (spit right in their fascist eyes!).
Starfish (she/her)
@Baud: Kenyatta was the more liberal candidate for something in Pennsylvania. Who was he running against? Was it Fetterman? Yes. He came in third behind Fetterman and Lamb.
Baud
@Steve LaBonne:
@Starfish (she/her):
I think he then lost a race for some state position.
TS
Australian share market is currently down 2% – opened 30 minutes ago – US markets are a large part of the influence of our market
TBone
@Baud: Kenyatta ran for PA Auditor General in 2024. First Black LGBTQ+
Backgrounder:.
https://www.spotlightpa.org/news/2024/10/malcolm-kenyatta-pennsylvania-auditor-general-election-2024/
sab
@Baud: I doubt that Europe wants UK back.
My stepsons were saying that we just voted for an equivalent to Brexit, putting up trade barriers with our biggest trading partners on our same continent.
Both of my stepsons now are worried about their jobs because Ohio manufacturers buy and sell parts mostly to Canada.
Starfish (she/her)
@Baud: He is the state representative for North Philadelphia.
PsiFighter37
@Starfish (she/her): Lamb was the best option. To be honest, the pre-stroke Fetterman would have been fine. And he has been too aggressively pro-Israel, but at the same time, he has also expressed in plain language (like the pager espionage episode) why people should not be sympathizing with Hezbollah. But a lot of his other MAGA-curious stuff recently has been bad. He’s basically become more about poking Democrats in the eye, loudly, than Sinema ever did. Perhaps the only good thing about him is that he hates his fellow senator (David McCormick) with the fire of a thousand suns
As for Kenyatta – he’s a fine guy, but I don’t generally support people who have failed in their two most recent elections getting a promotion (of sorts). Same reason why I wasn’t a huge fan of Jaime Harrison being DNC chair. I am concerned about David Hogg being a bit of a loose cannon as a vice chair.
Starfish (she/her)
@PsiFighter37: Democrats keep giving purple states candidates in this mold, and a lot of Democrats are not particularly enthusiastic about them. They are all white men who have some military service.
It is really annoying.
Almost Retired
Just spoke to my oldest son who – along with his wife – are digital nomads living in Colombia. As far as he can tell, the Great Colombian Trade War of Wednesday Late Morning Through Thursday Mid Afternoon seems to have attracted no attention locally. Survivor memoirs will be written.
WTFGhost
Yeah, I know. I gave up on Friday, myself. Too tired, too pained, too useless. Most of my life, I yearn for someone to throw a grenade or something, so I could smother it with my body, all my suffering would be over, and it would be a brave and noble act, i.e., not suicide. Today, if did it, I’d smother a flashbang which would give me third degree burns over the front of my body, possibly deafen me, possibly make me lose all my teeth, and, almost certainly, leave me in far worse condition.
So I don’t even get to mourn the lack of psychopaths throwing grenades, because even fucking *grenades* are too fucking complicated these days. Getting shot while protesting sounds better and better.
However: there will be no shootings of protestors until they have a reliable SS. FIRST, you find soldiers who will shoot at any “security threat,” THEN, you say the protestors are a security threat, you don’t have to shoot *all* of them, so, shoot to disperse them.”
I thought folks knew that – first step, you need Americans willing to murder and otherwise terrorize Americans, and laugh about it, and make up *hideous* songs about it to sing during Basic about Democrats, and joke “what do you call 20 dead Democrats who weren’t burned alive? A missed opportunity bwahahahaha!”
*THEN* the protestors get murdered. They don’t want a DLM to go with BLM, “Democratic Lives Matter,” which would be called viciously partisan since ALL lives *matter*. Also, they’d have to remember to call it “Democrat Lives Matter” because their hate overcomes their grammar.
(To re-use an old joke, it’s a shame their grammar didn’t whip their tails better when they were young, and teach them compassion!)
Killing people on paper won’t do it, so, you need to find people who will kill indiscriminately with that NRA fetish, the assault rifle (yes, with full auto, these are soldiers). That takes time – some people go along for a few kills, then their morals break their brain. There will be some “Born on the Fourth of July” scenes where *Republicans*, even some *in uniform*, get killed accidentally by people primed too much to kill. That’s the fear for protestors – it won’t come immediately.
Of course, remember, during BLM protests, they fired pepperballs, in some cases at random, at people on their porches, and I don’t know what other “less lethal” ammo they used. That won’t generate the SS needed to murder protestors, but it can cause a lot of pain, and *will* generate a body count. Still: flash protests are a lot safer than multi-day marches.
TBone
@Almost Retired: ha!
PersistentIllusion
@Steve LaBonne:
Steve, if you add Timothy Snyder, also an historian, I am in complete agreement with you.
Ohio Mom
@Baud: I’ve always admire David Hogg’s gumption but isn’t he a little green for this position?
ETA Okay he’s one of three, I feel a little better
PsiFighter37
@Starfish (she/her): Lamb won the first Democratic candidate to win a big special election after the felon’s first election. The fact that he lost so convincingly to me was quite disappointing. It would not have been a big a loss if Fetterman hadn’t turned out to be such an attention-seeker.
That said, Democrats have a pretty solid bench of folks, even some of the House reps who just lost their seats. I think in future elections, where the felon is no longer on the ballot, I can see the rest of the ticket performing better.
Steve LaBonne
@PersistentIllusion: Absolutely, I should have mentioned him as well.
PsiFighter37
@Ohio Mom: I wholly agree. While his gun control advocacy is to be lauded, he literally has done nothing else in his life at this point that should warrant this. He strikes me as someone who will likely get in the news for the wrong reasons. Even from an organizational / activism perspective, it’s hard to say that his work has resulted in a gun control advocacy organization that has actual political clout.
Baud
@Starfish (she/her):
We have very little consensus on the qualities of an ideal candidate.
PersistentIllusion
@Steve LaBonne: No worries. We all have a lot of balls in the air at the mo.
Starfish (she/her)
So a lot of people are talking about what the tariff means for the drop shippers like Temu and Shein. I want Temu and Shein and all the Etsy drop shippers to be launched into the sun but in an organized fashion.
Another Scott
ICYMI, Fritschner thread on BlueSky (Fritchner is a “House guy” who understands the nitty-gritty of how the place works):
Is he right? Dunno. But it makes a lot of sense to me.
Ultimately, politics is personal interactions. It’s trust and understanding where allies and adversaries are coming from. They always have to find ways to work with the other side even when they vehemently disagree on important things. Even now.
“I don’t support you, now do what I want” never works. There has to be ways for people who disagree to find ways to find compromise and common ground, even in the worst of times, for incremental progress to happen.
YMMV.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Ohio Mom
@WTFGhost: Oh dear. Maybe you should find someone to talk to in real life. I’m depressed too but that is a disturbing comment.
ArchTeryx
@Ohio Mom: I’m not that far away from where WTFGhost is posting from and I am surrounded by people RL. These are scary as hell times.
Baud
The right wing is really interested in David Hogg.
Point in his favor.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Another Scott:
Have you read the responses to his post? The majority of them aren’t complimentary
Starfish (she/her)
@Another Scott: His plan relies on Republicans who are willing to do the right thing. I have seen no evidence that such Republicans exist. Last time, there was a lot of this too, “whispers” of Republicans who might do the right thing, but no evidence of Republicans willing to do the right thing ever materialized.
Another Scott
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Yes, and as he said he knew that’s the reaction he would get.
He has more comments in subsequent threads there.
Best wishes,
Scott.
sab
Cloudy in Ohio so our rodent (Chuck) saw nothing. Too bad PA had some sun for Phil so six weeks of winter for them.
Meterologically I am trying to figure out how we have a short winter in Ohio and PA won’t, but that’s just facts, so I will disregard them.
Politically I am just waiting for our (D) leadership to catch its breath and plan. Shrieking won’t help. They must feel as sick as I do. But they do have experience on both sides (won or lost). My R senators are both newbies. Hope the fuckups come back to bite. Both are on record pre-approving every Trump appointee.
TBone
@Another Scott: thanks for sharing that perspective!
brantl
Five years from now, the US is likely to find itself trapped in a similar version of Groundhog Day – dealing with the isolationism, social unrest, and throttled prosperity that a plurality of citizens once endorsed.
They didn’t endorse it; the guy they voted for said he didn’t endorse it ( lying through his freaking teeth), this is what they (and we) got, as soon as the Orange ShitStick, & Pee Wee German got a chance.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Another Scott:
A few replies:
Nettoyeur
@lowtechcyclist:
@PsiFighter37: Not so sure. The Murdoch Street Journal is making fun of Trump.Why? Because stock players fear they will be hosed.
TBone
@sab: here in the PA Appalachians, there is no such thing as an early Spring, at least not yet…there are tornadoes in April (ask me how I know) and snow in May.
https://www.pennlive.com/news/2020/05/may-snow-flurries-rare-in-central-pa-but-not-unusual.html
currawong
I’ve always said that Brexit was Putin’s second greatest triumph – after owning a US President. We’re seeing the consequences of both now.
The Brexit campaign was funded by massive amounts of Russian money with the aim of getting Britain out of the EU before the anti-money laundering laws were introduced.
You look back at decades of Russians trying to influence the West through infiltration of the trade unions and workers organisations. Putin discovered that all you have to do is wave a bit of cash at right wing politicians and they’re yours.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Another Scott:
Ever considered there might be a reason he got the reaction he got? Because he’s wrong?
TBone
@Sister Golden Bear:
I hope
thousandsmillionsbillions of fleas infest the hair of their armpits. And pubes.Because these dudes are bald-ass chicken fuckers.
BESCUMBER
sanjeevs
@currawong: Yup. And now Trump is going to use the American economy as a weapon to smash the economies of America’s allies.
And if the American economy is heavily damaged as a result, then thats a win for Putin too.
Kristine
@Sister Golden Bear: Two off-the-cuff reasons I can think of why Musk went with those kids:
his ketamine-fueled self is reliving his teen years and he’s getting off on the beds-in-the-offices-work-all-night schtick. Just like the dorm, but with better food
he couldn’t find anyone older to agree to work with him because they suspected they might wind up in prison
Lobo
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Create space? This goes back to only Democrats have agency. Since when have Republicans created space for Democrats?
Tanking their states economy should be enough to create space. Stopping payments, like their doing in South Dakota should be enough to create space.This is not normal and should not be treated normally. His response goes to established Democrats purity politics in regards to norms and institutions. For example, I politely knock on a neighbors house, but I will barge in if there is a fire and they’re yelling for help.
Jeffro
@PsiFighter37: I’ll take that bet!
Starfish (she/her)
@Kristine: Musk and Thiel have been attempting to corrupt the youth for a while. They are whiny babies about liberals and colleges so Thiel gives them money to skip college and do a start up.
Unfortunately, no one likes middle-aged white bro ideas
Also, Thiel is a vampire who wants to use the blood of youth to live forever.
Jeffro
btw if the MAGAts are allowed to root for Russia, I’m allowed to root for Canada and Mexico
Jeffro
@Baud:
They all seem to know who Marc Elias is, too. I’ll give them credit, they know who on our side is effective.
TBone
@Jeffro: you’re a tad late to my party in that regard (*winks)
Another Scott
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): We’re 13 days in.
Nobody knows if the tactics the GQP or the Democrats in the House and Senate are or will be more effective. House and Senate Democrats don’t have a police force to round up Melon’s interns.
Ragey commenters are ragey, film at 11.
The current Continuing Resolution expires March 14.
The debt ceiling will have to be addressed before mid-June (maybe substantially before).
Both of those things will likely require Democratic votes, and Democrats can help shape that legislation in exchange for their votes. Those are actual, real, legislative things that depend on more than people yelling on the Internet.
We’ll know in the coming days and weeks whether Democrats have figured out ways to make the most of their power. We can and should encourage them to be quicker about figuring those effective things out!
FWIW.
Best wishes,
Scott.
zhena gogolia
@Another Scott: That makes a huge amount of sense.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Are any Republicans saying ANYTHING about these tariffs? This is crazy! He put higher tariffs on our neighbors and allies than the Great Satan, China!
Baud
@Another Scott:
Not really. It’s always possible to believe they would have done even better if they had chosen a different strategy.
The only way to win Internet arguments is not to play.
Baud
@Jeffro:
Agreed 100%.
WTFGhost
@Baud: Can you build a consensus on minimal standards?
Fanatic on voting rights
Strong supporter on LGBTetc., even if not a *loud* supporter
Demanding of full investigations of police-involved-shootings (ditto – there are some issues, in some areas, where you just don’t dare be “loud” or you’ll lose your local/state-level election.)
Press for universal background checks (“Because who wants to sell a gun to a terrorist, amirite?”)
A white christian man is safest, so make sure anyone who isn’t has enough punchback to overcome the bigoted whisper campaign
If that doesn’t narrow the field, *good*, but, that also means you need to get the right *kind* of greedy, for more/better candidates.
Alas, candidates don’t tend to check in with us to find they’ve been found most likely to succeed, so, the next step is thinking of how you can support an open primary with a variety of dreamy candidates, and, avoid getting *too* attached to your best-beloved candidate, to minimize the infighting, and bring about a quick collection of support once the golden candidate seems obvious.
Matt McIrvin
Note also, as an incentive for restoring the rule of law: Donald Trump has effectively total immunity from prosecution. But Elon Musk does not. None of those other guys do.
rikyrah
@gene108:
Absolutely.
Look how they run Red States
Baud
@WTFGhost:
It’s proven difficult to do.
rikyrah
@Old Dan and Little Ann:
That overgrown rat 😡
sentient ai from the future
@Another Scott: he is restating the assumptions of pundit-brain.
if you are fighting, and seen to be fighting, then that is inspiring, and courage is contagious just like fear and capitulation are.
cain
@different-church-lady: There is no reason to be confused. This is the same thing he did in the first term, but much bolder.
I hope all of you have finally gotten rid of your subscriptions and at least lets build up talkingpointsememo as the premier news platform.
Because clearly, the others are failing terribly.
cain
@Matt McIrvin:
But they do. Trump will just pardon them.
What has to happen is that they are locked out of the military – that’s not going to happen either.
Jeffro
@TBone: I missed a comment, didn’t I?
(hangs head)
Can I still join in, though? I’ve never been more proud (or surprised!) to consider myself a Mexican-Canadian sympathizer!!
LOL
lowtechcyclist
@Lobo:
Senate Democrats only have agency over Senate Democrats. Senate Republicans only have agency over Senate Republicans. If we’re talking about what Senate Democrats should do to maximize whatever slim chance there is of getting a fourth GOP vote against Patel or Gabbard or RFK Jr, then we’re discussing Senate Dems’ agency.
I mean, we can say all we want that no Republican should vote for these idiots, and certainly they have agency to vote against them, but few if any of them are going to use that agency in that manner.
After we’re stuck with them, it’ll be the time to harp on GOP agency.
FWIW, I don’t know if Fritschner is right or wrong, but aren’t Patel’s and Gabbard’s votes coming up pretty quick? Seems like we wouldn’t be giving up much more than we already have to test his theory.
But if the ‘reasonableness’ of Senate Dems with respect to Duffy, Noem, etc. can’t convince enough Rethugs to vote against either of Patel or Gabbard, I’d say the theory has been tested and found wanting.
Geminid
@Starfish (she/her): Not all white men, not by a long shot.Military veterans Mikie Sherrill, Elaine Luria and Chrissy Houlahan flipped red seats in 2018. Elissa Slotkin and Abigail Spanberger, former CIA, did also.
Other women winning red seats that year included Sharice Davids (Native),, Lucy MvBath and Lauren Underwood (Black), Kendra Horne, Xochitl Torres Small (Hispanic), Susan Wild, Libby Fletcher and Katie Porter.
Colin Allred, a Black man, and Andy Kim, a Korean American also flipped red seats that year.
I consider these purple districts. I have no idea why anyone would cared about winning a House majority would try to stigmatize Democrats running in purple districts collectively as “white males” when it is so factially untrue.
Dan B
@lowtechcyclist: I want NAMES of Senate Republicans who would vote against Patel, Gabbard, or any other threat to American security. And the “level headed one” Bessent, just handed the private information of every American to Musk and his very inexperienced young dudes.
Jeffro
@Geminid: informed as always – thank you, seriously!
NutmegAgain
@trollhattan: Oh, I’m sure he will soon tell us that he was both the highest scorer and the best goal keeper, all at once. Except for those little shorts…
Ohio Mom
@different-church-lady: I’ve long considered Josh Marshall one of my sanity checks. He’s informed, has the long view perspective of a historian, he’s ethical, and he’s grounded. Last week I thought I detected a note of panic in his voice and that freaked me out.
I have been reading him since the earliest days of blogs, when he had a solo site. He would write these long, meandering posts that were difficult to follow because they were so long and meandering. It’s fun to see how he turned out.
ETA: maybe it helps that he is married to a counselor psychologist as far as getting what Trump is doing to us.
Starfish (she/her)
@Geminid: I didn’t say all, did I? I said purple states, not districts here and there. Some of the folks you mentioned are in California which is blue or other places that are red. I mean, I am not opposed to them finding a white military bro to run against Fetterman next time, but it feels pretty predictable.
Kristine
@Starfish (she/her): Well, here’s hoping they get a chance to complete their degrees in prison.
TBone
@Jeffro: Antifa peeps are always all welcome!
Geminid
@Geminid: I left out Medeleine Dean, Abby Finkenauer, Cyndy Axne and Haley Stephens. Those four women also flipped red seats in 2018.
Democrats took 40 Republican seats that year. We did not do nearly so well last November. Still, Janelle Bynum, a Black woman, flipped OR05. Derek Tran (Korean American) flipped a California seat and Vietnamese American David Min held Katie Porter’s purple district.
Mary Peltola (Native), Yadiel Caraveo (Hispanic), Mary Gluesenkamp Perez and Hilary Scholten flipped red seats in 2022, while Emilia Sykes (Black) won her purple district race in NE Ohio.
WTFGhost
@Ohio Mom: Fun fact: the reason I post here is I can’t talk. Oh, I can hold a normal-ish conversation for 5, 10, 15 minutes, then my brain conks out. Writing is easier – no need to force a head wracked by TMJ to do something *complicated*.
And… geez. I’m a special snowflake. If you upset me, I go into high stress mode to find some way of saying “I know you couldn’t possibly have meant it, or, if you did mean it, I’m sure you had a valid reason, but that hurt, and, like, a lot, and I don’t want you to feel guilty over that because it’s *me* that’s broken, but I can’t afford pain right now…”.
(Yes, I know, technically, it’s not me who is “broken”. Fun fact about social situations: if everyone (but you) believes you were a dick, it doesn’t matter if you were a total vulva, because, in that room, you were a dick. So it’s just easier to say “it’s not you, it’s me,” )
Hearing my own disability attorney’s office tell me Friday that no one cares about my pain, and my fate’s in the hand of the feds, well… at first, during the Biden administration, I was *confident* because I had an attorney, now I know it’s more likely a waste of money. If I could ignore all of my pain, I would clear me for work too, but I can’t ignore my pain any longer, and… well, too much stress, too many hopeless, long, lonely nights, to big of a sudden shock, *eventually* it catches up, and I think it’s because, eventually, a person really is just too tired of putting it off, and realizes it might as well be today.
But it’s not today or tomorrow or this month for me. It’s just, disability would mean the chance to rest, rehab, and grow. Now I find the stuff I’d hoped for for 40 some years is just unreachable, and well… that’s okay, because it has to be.
Losing a good, real, bright, hope always hurts.
rikyrah
@RaflW:
Me too.nothing from a Red State
TBone
@WTFGhost: do not succumb and never EVER give up on yourself please. Hopes can be dashed and yet
We survive
Somehow.
sentient ai from the future
cryptocurrencies are crashing across-the-board and i am HERE FOR IT.
btc down 8% and that’s the stable one. others like ethereum and solana are down by double digit percentages.
USD is up against everything but the euro, which i don’t understand given that all the other comparisons have saner fiscal policy than we do right now. AUD is particularly puzzling to me.
whatever. i was rebalancing my portfolio anyway. hopefully the crash isnt as dire domestically and i can still transfer some of my riskier holdings to foreign bond funds.
ETA: oh, is this just partially a function of those markets on the far side of GMT are open and tanking, and our markets are not yet? if so, hold on to your butts.
sentient ai from the future
@TBone: i am looking for a proper font for it, ideally the iconic handwritten “love laugh love” one, in order to cafepress/etsy it.
but i’m thinking “pro-LGBT pro-abortion anti-fascist” on a bumper sticker. if you put that together give 50% to the balloon-juice PAC.
Jeffro
@sentient ai from the future: try “NO ONE ELECTED ELON” as a bumper sticker
that’ll sell millions in a day
Geminid
@Starfish (she/her): There weren’t any North Carolina names on that list. But the Democrats I listed all ran against Republican incumbents and won. These were purple districts including the ones in California..
I figured you meant all or close to all by the way you phrased you criticism of Lamb. It sounded like a more general criticism of the party for running white military veterans in purple districts, like that was a pattern, and I wanted to push back on that.
But as long as it’s not a norm, I see nothing wrong with running white male military veterans in purple districts. Rep. Jason Crow (CO) and former Rep. Jeff Jackson (NC) are white veterans who flipped purple seats. Jackson is now North Carolina’s Attorney. Those are two very capable politicians and real assets to the party, in my opinion.
But, we’ll get to see how the Party’s candidate selection works out next year. We’ll be going hard after 20 or so Republican seats and I think we’ll come up with strong candidates for all of them. I’m looking forward to it.
Leto
Picture from a Canadian liquor store today. Whelp.
Top import partner by every state. It’s pretty illuminating.
Darkrose
@Another Scott: The reason people attacked his post is that it reads like something pre-Obama, when the Senate was a bipartisan club and you didn’t have one side who fundamentally doesn’t see the other side as legitimate. He talks about Democrats trying to “create space for Republicans” to vote against Trump’s worst nominees; how well did that work with Hegseth? The GOP is scared of Musk and MAGA and it seems pretty clear to me that they don’t give a shit about the Democrats. And why should they?
Gloria DryGarden
@Leto: 6 states that arent getting their top trades from Canadá mexico china
brilliant. /s
Ohio Mom
@WTFGhost: Okay, I hear you are fighting to get SSDI, and that’s hard. very hard. I’m sorry your attorney isn’t hopeful, that was the right thing, to get an attorney and appeal. It doesn’t always work though.
I get the writing-is-easier-than-speaking thing. Not saying you are neurodiverse but some autistic are the same way. Some were considered nonverbal and without language until they were given keyboards.
The only thing I can’t tell (and I’m going to bed shortly so may not see any answer until tomorrow) is what type of medical care are you getting, for your physical pain and mental distress? There is help out there, sometimes not as complete as wewould like but some relief is better than none. You deserve all the relief that is possible.
Gloria DryGarden
@WTFGhost: I am sending you 4,000 virtual hugs.
If you were in my town, I’d try to hook you up with a cranial osteopath, or a tmj physical therapist, but I don’t know if it would help. I used to do that work with clients, but also it also helped me. The whole body can hurt, over tmj pain.
My body locked up over a slightly too high tooth filling once. After we fixed the filling, it took weeks of massages to unlock it all. Empathy for your pain.
What Ohio mom said. If there are some interventions you might try that would help, it could be worth it.
I think I saw you say on a thread, was it on BlueSky? that you were busy not-dying, for the time being. I’m noting your courage and perseverance. But those hugs have been sent. Golly.
Anastasio Beaverhausen
I was on a hiking holiday in Cornwall when the Brexit referendum took place. I distinctly remember the results posted on a signboard outside a pub the next day:
Pride and Prejudice: 52%
Sense and Sensibility 48%
Anastasio Beaverhausen
I was on a hiking vacation in Cornwall when the Brexit referendum took place. I distinctly remember the results being posted on a sign outside a pub the next day:
Pride and Prejudice: 52%
Sense and Sensibility: 48%
WTFGhost
@Ohio Mom: I’ve got a pain doc, and we’re hoping for a miracle cure. They have new ideas, and new diagnostics, but both the ERISA disability plan and social security disability are likely to fail because, there’s no objective cause to my pain, and the torture tests (neuropsych testing, physical functionality) will only show that my capabilities deteriorate – not that it hurts like hell along the way.
I might be wrong – I tend to catastrophize. But, it’s like, I played by the rules for 30 full years, and I expected that *meant* something, and I’m coming to grips with how it doesn’t. America is a cruel nation to its own citizens – no wonder we’re ready to see immigrants die in razorwire traps.
sab
@WTFGhost: Hoping and thinking of you a lot. My husband of almost 25 years has had severe pain most of our married life. He is so far a trouper but I do worry a lot about when it gets worse.
He had back surgery where the resulting infection almost killed him.
We are still trouping on. Thinking about others also handling the pain and frustration helps us persevere.
Ohio Mom
@WTFGhost: I am relieved you have a doctor you trust. Can’t argue that we are a miserably cruel society. Oh god, are we!
Hang in there.